i explored using some scripts to autostart firefox and open up a certain page, but the fact that i needed kiosk plugins from third-parties just ended that for me, i don't want the browser frame to show up. electron is a bit overkill, but thus far it gets exactly what i want done. that piece will be optimized once i find the time.
[0]: https://github.com/buildroot/buildroot/tree/master/board/ras...
To build a tiny fine-tuned Raspbian for "embedded" Python 3 (a project I dub PiratePython). It uses multistrap/qemu and worked well for me. YMMV.
I'm aiming to distribute SD cards that make some of our Pi Zero kits - Radio, Mood Light, etc - near frictionless to get up and running.
I found the use of Qemu + multistrap in this tooling easy to get my head around and I additionally wanted a stateless RAM disk so customers couldn't fubar it.
I didn't have much luck with Buildroot.
I evaluated TinyCore/PiCors too and I love the concept, but it's just a little contrived to ship to beginners. The way it mounts whole packages of overlays/dependencies is clever though- I am doing something similar (inspired by Open Pandora's pnd format) to add a custom build of VLC to PiratePython for our radio kit. Package the whole app + dependencies into a container image, drop it onto the SD card, mount and simlink everything into place.
i will share the code (make it public via github) and write up my experiences developing for this device.
This has a list of DietPi's pre-installed applications and the packages that it has available for installation: http://dietpi.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5#p5
my device connects to any hdmi enabled tv and provides a digital scoreboard for sports, basically i'm running a chromium browser (via electron) and autostarting that when the device starts. the device is then controlled by an ios app. i ended up using ubuntu-mate, but i don't think i even need gnome, maybe something along the lines of windowmaker, flux, or lightdm would do. i need to save microsd space so that i can have users upload media like images and video, and ubuntu mate really hogs up 4G and above which forces me to have to supply a larger microsd card which ups the total cost.
The most recent image I built ended up being around 700MB, but I included some stuff you may not need, so you might be able to get that smaller.
https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv8/broadcom/raspberry-...
The AUR provides additional software you can compile yourself but most of what makes the system run already built.
I can't confirm this, but it feels like Arch linux has surged in popularity over the last ~3-4 years. I ditched Debian for Arch in 2016 and haven't looked back.
That being said, last time I tried to run FreeBSD on a Radpberry Pi was not a pleasant experience. That was several years ago though so things may have improved.
i even considered doing my own os, but ultimately my goal is to build an appliance so that would be a major distraction. dietpi seems good, i will probably pursue that, but thanks for writing the article.